Whitetail Wizard

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Maintain Your Mental Focus

My mind seemingly has tunnel vision. The only two things i seem to focus intently on is bow hunting and studying deer.

It doesn’t make me all bad. I could care less about ball parks, Nascar races, or tournament golf. Whitetails excite me; almost everything else is far less interesting.

People question how I can only think about these two items most of the time. It must be easy because both passions have consumed my thoughts for more than 60 years.

Both thoughts are of equal importance, and without the study, there would be less success at hunting. A number of years ago, Dave Richey, the outdoor writer with Michigan’s largest fishing-hunting blog < http://www.daverichey.com > was asked a question while waiting to get a new string put on his bow.

Another customer recognized him and asked if the only thing he thought about was writing. He gave the man a straight answer.

“Writing is what I do,” he said. “It’s how I make a living, and to do my job properly, I’m always thinking about the next story. It has to be what I think about on a daily basis. I’d be dead in the water without the next story idea.”

I could easily steal his answer, but why? My answer is based on the same reasons he gives people. For me, hunting whitetails with a bow, and studying the animals at every opportunity, is what I do. To stop studying deer is to stop learning about whitetail deer. To stop learning means less success.

When I hunt, I become totally focused on my surroundings, and what the deer are doing. I never lose my concentration on the deer, but I continue to focus and watch other deer. I can solve all kinds of deer hunting problems while sitting in my ground blind or in an elevated coop.

When working, my thoughts are always on deer hunting or trying to figure out why a particular deer did what it did the night before.

Some people find it hard to think about two things at once or have trouble chewing gum and walking. That often happens when deer hunting: I’ll be trying to solve a knotty little deer travel pattern problem, and a nice buck walks out. My reflexes take over, and I can shoot the buck while shifting gears, and then I will shift back to the mental problem.

Solving any problem with either the machine shop or the archery business is always easier while bow hunting. Any hunting area always has some natural noises, but out there, the phone doesn’t ring unless I take the cell phone with me. I often manage to leave the silly thing home.

Years ago Richey told me that many of his award-winning articles and columns came to him while he was asleep. One part of his brain kicked in, he would wake up, slip out of bed, head for his office and write it while the idea was fresh in his mind.

The same thing happens to me. A problem may bother me for weeks, and then one night while sound asleep, the answer to the problem wakes me up. I suspect that being asleep allows the subconscious to kick in, provide the needed answer, and usually the answer is so simple I wonder why it didn’t come to me much sooner.

I’m able to study deer, think about various deer patterning problems, and be ready and able to shift gears automatically, and shoot the buck. It’s what I’ve trained my body and mind to do, and anyone else can do it providing they’ve learned the basic fundamentals of drawing and properly aiming a bow and making a smooth release. Do those things long enough, and do them properly, and it becomes simple.

This sort of thing often happens while I’m hunting on my deer ranch. When my two main thoughts meld while aiming at a big buck, it is one of the easiest thing to do to shoot a nice buck.

That�??s what focus does for a hunting. �?? The Whitetail Wizard

Friday, May 02, 2008

Hunt The Hard-To-Reach Spots

The hunter who pays attention to deer movements will soon find some out-of-the-way spots where big bucks like to live. Some of those locations are easily hunted and some are not.

Some of these out-of-the-way spots are found while hunting other species. Some of the little hidey-holes where bucks lay up are so small that one wonders if there is enough cover for a cottontail rabbit to hide. Take it from me: it doesn’t take much cover to hide a big buck.

Some of my friends hunt in widely scattered locations. Many also hunt upland game birds, cottontail rabbits and snowshoe hares, wild turkeys and other game. The observant ones find hard-to-hunt buck hideaways.

A friend pays attention to such things, and as he walked past an overgrown apple orchard after a hard rain, he spotted a big deer track going over the fence. He’d tried to get his pointer to work into it in search of birds, and the dog refused to go.

Being a patient fellow, he walked his pooch around the orchard, and found the way the buck left that orchard. He also noticed that the tracks went past a big pine tree. Two days later he scaled that tree in the late afternoon after putting the dog in the truck kennel, and took his bow with him. Thirty minutes before the end of shooting time a buck that grossed 152 points jumped the fence and walked past his tree.

He’s no stranger to seeing big bucks. This one passed the tree at 22 yards, and my friend shot him. It is still his largest buck, but it points out the reasons why hunters should be attentive to deer sign.

Another guy was out chasing ruffed grouse, and walked past a sumac patch on top of a hill with a good view in all directions. The man stopped to re-tie his boot laces, and was 20 feet from the sumac patch, and out busted a big buck. He was laying up there because most people walked past the sumac without stopping, thinking the cover was much to small to hold a deer.

Outdoor writer Dave Richey tells the story of hunting ringneck pheasants near Montrose, Michigan, years ago. He was hunting along the edge of the Flint River. A rooster flushed wild at 30 yards ahead of the dog, and he swung and winged the bird.

It caught its balance in mid-air, cocked its wings and soared part-way across the river and landed on a tiny island of marsh grass and a few stunted trees. He checked the water depth, and it was only shin deep, and he crossed. His dog caught some scent, pointed, and as Dave approached the dog, a big buck jumped up and bolted across the river. He watched the buck splash across, crisscrossed the tiny island, and kicked up the pheasant and downed the bird.

He kept that oddball sighting in mind, and once the firearm season opened, he and his twin brother George, waded across to the island. One went to the upstream end while the other walked through, and sure enough, they jumped the buck and killed it with one shot. Read Dave’s fine daily outdoor columns at < http://www.daverichey.com >.

Talk to some farmers, and they all have tales of bucks laying up in tall weeds along their line fences or next to a barn. They push deer out of swampy little tangles perhaps 20 feet across. These bucks hold in such tiny bits of cover because few people think to look there.

I have an elevated coop that we call the Viewing Coop where deer congregate every night to feed. There is a tiny, narrow strip of brush 20 feet from the Viewing Coop, and many people have seen big 10- and 12-point bucks get up out of that brush and move out to feed.

The thing is that bow hunters can dare to be different. They don’t have to follow the doctrine everyone throws at them. They can walk through an area so small that it takes less than 10 seconds to get through, and often they find the home of a big trophy buck that no one knows about.

Cattail marshes hold bucks, and I remember a nice buck that my friend Larry Barrett shot as it came out of the cattails. He knew that buck was there, and when he shot it, the buck wheeled and dove back into the cattails and died there.

Don’t stick with the status quo. Check things out. Know where the tiny patches of heavy cover are in your hunting area, look for those little nooks and crannies, and try to figure where a buck will come from or go to when leaving. That information is knowledge that you can put to good use this fall.

Try it this year. It may produce a nice buck that you’ve probably overlooked for years.—The Whitetail Wizard

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Antlers Are A Thing Of Beauty

It’s not that a basket-rack 8-point isn’t pretty, because it is, but beauty is always in the eyes of the beholder. Some whitetail bucks simply have a great deal of class, and others do not.

Two things that make for a beautiful rack is mass and points. A buck with good mass is a sight to behold. Some people favor a typical rack, and they can be stunning with high points and a wide spread, but I really enjoy seeing nontypical bucks.

My ranch has produced a number of large nontypical racks over the years, and they are awesome to look at.  A buck that has antler bases that most bow hunters can’t get their hand around are truly breathtaking.

Locating, and hunting nothing but one big buck, is one of bow hunting’s greatest challenges. Finding the buck’s home range is important, and then trying to pattern the animal can be a lengthy and time consuming effort, but when properly done, the end result is a thing of wonder.

One big buck eluded me last year. I saw him on several occasions, but he was always with a doe or two or cruising the edge of timber sizing up the doe population. Once I thought he was coming in after a doe in estrous, but at the last second he wheeled around to chase off a smaller buck.

How big was he? He was working on 200 B&C points, and one of my friends who saw him on several occasions felt it was possibly in the 220-point class. Such bucks are uncommon anywhere, and this old boy hopefully made it through the winter. There will be a lot of interest in him once hunting season starts, and I’ll know if he is around then.

I will hunt that big rascal. He avoided me last year, and the same may happen again this year, but seeing a buck with that much mass and so many points, puts a fire in my belly.

I look for classy looking bucks. There is something about a symmetrical rack that is delightful to see, and there is something about the freaks of nature—the nontypicals—that capture my attention as well.

The nontypicals have so much going on with their rack that it is difficult to make a really adequate assessment of size. I look for drop tines, kicker points, sticker points, out-of-balance racks with one side higher than the other. To me, deer with drop points are really something to look at, especially if the drop point is long or thick.

We have a fair number of bucks here that have double brow points on each side, and one look at such a buck gives the impression of Richard Nixon giving the peace sign with both hands. Double brows on one side are fairly common, and there are always a few bucks with double brow points on each side.

One of my buddies saw a nontypical last year that was much higher on one side, had more points on that side, and he was an impressive looking animal even through his rack wouldn’t have scored very high because the rack was too far out of balance.

We have a large number of big, heavy, high and wide typical bucks that offer the viewer a big thrill. These bucks have excellent mass, 10 or 12 points with very large G-2s and G-3s, wide spread and there is little doubt among viewers that they are looking at a very special buck.

A photographer buddy—Dennis Buchner of Grawn—shoots photos for me every year. Last year he was cruising one of my perimeter roads, and saw a massive 10-point stand up in the marsh grass and run into the open woods. The rack on this buck was truly impressive, but there is even more to it than that.

Most truly large-racked bucks are large bodied as well. The neck on some of them looks as big around as a barrel. See one of these bucks, and the skin seems loose around the neck, and when the animal turns its head, the rolls of skin move with it.

Time is the major reason why big bucks grow to such a large size. Outside of my ranch, hunters shoot the first buck with antlers they see. These 1 1/2-year-old bucks have tiny racks, and once they’ve been killed, there is never a chance for them to grow larger.

Many hunters can feel free to disagree with me, but if they passed on these small bucks every year, and other hunters in the area did the same, within three years they would be seeing and shooting massive bucks.

Sportsmen who are content with shooting a small basket racks and continue shooting them, will never see a big-racked buck. Those who instead choose to shoot a doe are doing the right thing, but it’s right only if everyone plays by the same rules.

That is a difficult thing to accomplish in this or any other state.—The Whitetail Wizard

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Don�??t Hunt Angry!

Deer hunting, like so many other things, is always good. It’s just that some hunting days are better than others.

And, if you trust nothing else, know this: hunting success can always get worse. Success depends, in large part on wind, weather conditions and hunting pressure. Wherever we hunt, we cannot change the wind or weather conditions.

Anglers have the same problems. Too much rain or snow can affect how fish move or hit. The same happens when the wind swirls, or when lightning and thunder start shaking up the sky.

For many of us, our hunts are planned for a week in advance and the weather doesn’t cooperate. We spit and sputter, gripe and complain, and then we go out and hunt angry.

Hunting angry doesn’t help. If anything, being mad about something we can’t control doesn’t do anything except mess up our hunting judgment. As a result we make mistakes.

We mess up. We get mad, and that makes us feel worse, and we begin to fidget. We move around, make the occasional noise, and any deer that may have come to us are long gone.

Why get mad? I’ve hunted deer for too long, and over many years, have become somewhat philosophical about bad weather. Learn to take the good with the bad, and think happy thoughts rather than thinking how angry you are. That line of thinking only make people even more angry, and that only increases their problems.

Don’t sweat the small stuff. Instead of focusing on the things we can’t control, change your thoughts and think about those things that can be changed.

Climb a tree, if need be, and set in an elevated coop and do whatever can be done to beat the wind. Or ... do what some hunters do and that is to go home and take a nap. There is always tomorrow.

Taking the good with the bad doesn’t always mean that a bad day can’t be productive. I’ve sat out, and had the wind ripping leaves off the trees, and about 30 minutes before shooting time ends, the wind gusts taper off and die. It then becomes whisper quiet, so quiet you are soon wishing for a soft breeze.

If some light rain falls when the wind dies down, there can be some very good deer movements. It seems as if the deer are happy to see the weather change as they move out to feed.

Caution often is more likely when deer move after a strong wind and rain storm. Hunters must learn to keep their cool,
and take the good with the bad even though we seem to be having more bad weather in the early season than ever before.

Last-minute weather changes have paid off for me more times than I can remember. Heading in to the house, and skipping the evening hunt, often means hunters quite possibly will miss the finest 30 minutes of the day as the wind and rain dies.

It’s far better to consider the weather, whether good or bad, as part of the deer-hunting experience. Such last-minute weather changes don’t happen often enough that we can plan around them, but they can pay off often enough that they should be one more trick in our deer-hunting repertoire.

It’s an awesome feeling when we’ve rode out the bad weather, and than see the last-minute change that we’ve hoped for. We no longer are mad at the weather, and things start looking up. When the bad weather suddenly changes, and the good weather moves in and the deer start to move, we fell blessed as we sit in a ground blind or tree stand.

Look up at the sky, nod and say “thanks,” and get ready for a nice buck to step out of heavy cover and be within easy bow range. Just remember: it never pays to hunt angry.—The Whitetail Wizard

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

How Did The �??Whitetail Wizard�?� Name Originate?

My nickname originated in October, 1980, when outdoor writer Dave Richey wrote a feature story about me for Outdoor Life magazine. He originally called the article something else, but the magazine changed it to The Whitetail Wizard.

It was one of the first Big 3 magazine articles that Dave wrote about me, my hunting techniques and my ranch. Another was published the same month in Sports Afield about my deer camp.

He also gave some of my background. I grew up in this area southeast of Cadillac, and began hunting with a long bow as a teenager.

I remember that back then the area was loaded with whitetails and there were some truly huge bucks. Tree stand hunting wasn’t legal at that time, and our deer hunting was always done on the ground.

Bow hunting, to me, was always more challenging than hunting with a rifle although I did a good bit of both years ago. My first love was to hunt with a bow, and it remains my favorite 60 years later.

Deer hunting is a little bit like owning a hunting dog. If that dog can hunt, he can teach his owner how to hunt birds. Deer can teach hunters how to hunt if they pay attention and learn from those observations.

The nickname became a gradual thing. A few people started calling me The Whitetail Wizard, and as time went on and my hunting reputation continued to grow, the name became more popular. It got another growth spurt when I purchased the old Oneida bow company, and changed the name to C.P. Oneida Eagle Bow Company. The Whitetail Wizard became a small part of our promotional programs.

From a marketing standpoint, it was a nickname that seemed to resonate with bow hunters. I’ve gained a bit of a reputation for solving whitetail hunting problems.

Those problems are solvable mostly because I spend time in the field every day working on my ranch. I have countless opportunities to study deer, and I’ve learned (and often written) that the more study that goes into whitetail behavior, the more successful the hunter will become.

It’s hard to be a chemist without studying chemistry. Likewise, it’s difficult to become a highly successful deer hunter unless a great deal of time is spend studying whitetail deer, their habits and habitat.

My philosophy of whitetail deer study will fall into several categories, and each one will be covered more thoroughly in future blogs. Those key elements to deer hunting success revolve around a sound knowledge of: locating deer, the wind, tree stand locations, hunting rutting bucks and how to shoot a whitetail buck.

It would seem that understanding each facet of this somewhat complicated program would be easy. If experience teaches us anything, it is that the more we learn, the more successful we become.

Experience in hunting is obviously the most important item. The only way to gain more experience is to hunt more often. But, obviously, it doesn’t stop there.

Many people spend a couple of days scouting before the season opens, and then go hunting. My scouting carries on year ‘round, and it’s rather amazing what can be learned about deer by watching them during the off season. Once they have been hunted is when most people learn just a little bit about how deer try to avoid danger.

We’ve heard the term “buck fever” and know what it means, The buck starts coming closer, the hunter prepares for a shot, and then begins hyperventilating, shaking, choking, breathing fast, and when the time comes to shoot, the hunter couldn’t hit a barn while standing inside it.

Buck fever can be cured by watching deer at close range. Obviously, one must be able to control jittery nerves, but the more deer a person sees while hunting, the more accustomed we become, and this leads to greater confidence when shooting a bow. It goes without saying that constant practice shooting a bow is important.

Some of my thoughts on deer hunting may fly in the face of conventional thinking, but that’s what makes deer hunting so great. My methods work for me and people who hunt with me, and they can work for everyone else. Accurate bow shooting is easy to learn, and it has been covered in earlier blogs, but careful adherence to proven techniques are important to hunting success.

Outdoor Life pinned this monicker on me, and it has become part of who I am. Anyone who continues to read my daily weblogs will learn more about me, how I puzzle out deer problems, how I choose my stand locations, and why a typical hunt can become the hunt of a lifetime. It just means doing everything right, time and time again.

Stay tuned for continued updates on hunting techniques that work.—The Whitetail Wizard

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Deer & The Head Fake

Many years ago, I was annoyed with the continuous head fakes that does and yearlings made. They were suspicious of human presence, and kept looking at my ground blind.

I really didn’t understand it very well at the time, but it seemed as if every deer that passed my way, gave two to four head fakes. The fawns, seeing their mother do it, picked up a new trick and it was difficult to draw my bow without one or more deer lifting their head.

Often they snorted and ran off. It was discouraging, and now as I work in my archery shop, I have people ask about the head fake. It has them as puzzled as I was 60 years ago.

The head fake is made by suspicious deer. They think they see a movement, or perhaps did see a movement, and raised their head to stare at it. When it didn’t move, they would lower their head and quickly jerk it back up in an attempt to spot some movement.

It’s still a very common trait among whitetails. The reason it is so common is because the deer have caught other people moving. The deer are spooky, but are trying to learn if there is something nearby that represents a possible danger to them.

It slowly dawned on me to sit motionless, not make a sound, and if the deer played this game, I’d let them. I’ve had deer give me the head fake a dozen times, and when they don’t see any movement, they relax and go back to feeding. And that is when a shot can be taken, but it requires some practice and nerve control to keep from getting spotted.

So what can people do to prevent having to face this problem every time they go hunting? Deer are spooked by many things other than humans, but human scent is a major cause of jumpy deer.

Believe it or not, there still are some people who prefer wearing leather boots in the deer woods. Leather is certainly more comfortable, but rubber boots are more practical. My rubber boots are knee-high but I know a guy who hunts in hip boots, and he is nowhere near water. He wears higher boots because it gives him even more scent control.

Movement is the second key element to conquer. People think they aren’t moving, but an index finger may be tapping out the beat to a song playing in their head. The finger doesn’t move much, but when nothing else is moving, it can and will attract the attention of deer. The same thing applies to toe tapping.

Some people are bundles of nervous energy which goes hand-in-hand with the jangly nerves of mature whitetails. Try pinning a tiny bell to arms or legs, and then try to sit still for 30 minutes without jingling the bells. Most people can’t do it, but for a hunter to be truly successful, they must master the art of moving nothing but their eyes.

A friend is blind in one eye. You’d think he would fidget and move around while trying to see, but he can sit motionless for hours without moving. Some people think he is hibernating, but let a buck walk out in front of him, he knows how and when to draw and shoot. Deer never spot him.

Noise is another enemy of deer hunters. How often have you sat in a tree stand, leaning back against the trunk, and have a buck walk in. The hunter moves an inch away from the tree, and the fabric of their clothing makes a slight noise against the bark, and unwittingly you have put the head fake into motion.

Many manufactured tree stands squeak. Some are impossible to sit in without having them make faint noises. Deer hear those foreign sounds, and are on red alert. And yet, how many hunters spend time trying to remove those quirky little sounds and establish a quiet stand? Not many.

There obviously is more to deer hunting than grabbing a bow and heading into the woods. We must contend with sight, sound and smell, and weird noises that emanate from tree stands, ground blinds, etc.

I always advise hunters to take a hard look at how they hunt and what they do to prepare for a hunt. Many will later admit that they squirm a bit, make a noise, or are spotted by watchful deer. Study how you hunt, and what you do, and it’s always possible to find something that needs an improvement.

Find that one little thing, solve it, and look for another. Sooner or later, through careful study and the ability to sit motionless without noise, a revelation will come to you. It takes time and practice, but finding those little things that spook deer can make hunters more successful.—The Whitetail Wizard

Monday, April 14, 2008

10 Major Tree Stand Hunting Mistakes

Some of my best blog ideas come from customers at my Buck Pole Archery Shop in Marion, Michigan. All come in seeking either a new C.P. Oneida Eagle compound bow or detailed and valuable hunting information.

Some questions I field offer good topics for a daily blog. A gent came in today, looked at some of the big bucks on the walls, and posed the question.

“What are the 10 major bow hunting mistakes that hunters make when hunting from a tree stand?”

It’s a good question, and worthy of an answer here. These are 10 thoughts, and in no particular order except for No. 1 because it is so important. You might have 10 other answers but these work for me.

1.) Knowing how to hunt the wind is paramount to hunting success. The really savvy deer hunters test the air movement several times during a hunt because the wind seldom stays from just one direction. To be an effective tree-stand hunter, one must either be directly downwind of the deer or across-and-downwind. I use milkweed seeds once they have dried out, and release one or two several times during the hunt. If any blow toward where the deer come from, you are in trouble. Learn to play the wind, learn how to stay downwind, and you’ll shoot more deer.

2.) Know your equipment. It’s always nice to have a new bow, but a hunter must become familiar with their bow. We must know what the bow will do under any given circumstance. If we shoot an unfamiliar bow, and find ourselves having a problem hitting the sweet spot on our anchor point, the chance of a miss or wounded deer is possible. Become familiar with the bow to the point where drawing, aiming and shooting becomes mechanical. Develop good shooting habits.

3.) Know your ideal shooting distance. It’s important to know your limitations and develop enough sense to never exceed them. My outdoor writing buddy Dave Richey < http://www.daverichey.com > has bad eyes, and his effective shooting range is 15 yards. He never stretches his limitations, and kills deer every year. Your ideal range may be 30 yards, but in a wooded situation during that 30 minutes after sundown, judging 30 yards is difficult. Most people find their effective shooting range is shorter in a shadowed or wooded environment. Never try to stretch your established shooting distance. It usually doesn’t pay off.

4.) My favorite trees for tree stands are cedars and pines, but it’s not always possible to find such a tree. Hunting from hardwood trees can be equally productive if the hunter chooses the right tree. Me, I prefer deer coming from behind me. I can usually hear them coming, and there is no need to move until it’s time to shoot once the buck walks past and is quartering away. Obviously, this means knowing exactly where deer travel and choosing a tree wisely.

5.) Any hardwood tree can work but if must be positioned absolutely correct. Make every attempt to situate the stand so that you can achieve full draw without being seen and without any movement. Reach full draw, allow the deer to walk past and shoot it when it is quartering-away. If it sound easy, it’s because doing so is easy.

6.) Learn how to sit still. Most bow hunters want to stand in their tree stand, and soon their back and legs get sore. They change positions slightly, and a deer that is out of sight and perhaps 100 yards away may spot the shift and movement. Once you’ve been spotted, the deer can and will pattern you and will avoid your stand at all costs. Teach yourself to ignore a pain in your back, butt or leg; avoid swatting a early October bugs, and sit motionless.

6.) Check your tree stand before each use. If it squeaks or makes noise when climbing into it, it will make noise when you sit or stand in it. Eliminate any and all noises while checking for any defects. A squeak at the wrong moment will send bucks heading for cover.

7.) Avoid cutting wide shooting lanes around your stand. Instead, look for holes in the vegetation where a killing shot can be made. It’s one thing to remove a few twigs, and another to remove all the brush. Deer travel where they do because of the brush. Learn to hunt with it.

8.) Always wear a safety harness. Most tree stand hunting accidents occur when climbing into, out of or down a tree. Even with a harness, always maintain three firmly anchored points of contact with the tree. This means two hands and one foot or two feet and one hand. Falls can occur when only two contact points are used. Wear the safety harness, make certain it is attached firmly to the tree and get used to it. The life it saves may be yours.

9.) Practice shooting from an elevated position. Shooting at a steep downward angle can cause your anchor point to shift. Learn how to shoot sitting down to remove most of the movements required, and know how your arrows fly from up in a tree.

10.) How high is too high? It’s a matter of personal feelings, but most of my tree stands are 15 feet up. A hunter who sits will be shooting from 18 feet in the air, and a standing hunter will be shooting from about 21 feet. I know, and you probably do too, people who hunt 35 to 40 feet high. In my opinion, and that of many sane hunters, such heights are dangerous. Learn to play the wind, know how to sit still, know when and how to draw on a deer, and 15 feet is plenty high enough.—The Whitetail Wizard

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Deer Can Teach Hunters: If They Pay Attention

Whitetails can keep a hunter honest.

This doesn�??t mean that my valued readers are dishonest. It simply means that deer have the ability to make hunters think.

They also can make hunters pretty humble when sportsmen think they know everything about deer hunting. Hunters who feel superior often get humble pie to eat.

One thing I�??ve learned over many years is to watch hunters. It doesn�??t take long to determine who are the great sportsmen, and who are braggarts. I�??ve hunted in many camps over the years, and the loudest and most aggressive hunters are usually the ones who make the dumbest mistakes.

An old saying goes like this: it�??s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. The best rule is to keep the mouth closed and pay attention.

Picking people�??s brains, and learning what they know, is fun and can provide valuable information. Savvy hunters never venture an opinion unless they know what they are talking about. That is especially true when talking about hunting whitetail deer.

Southern folk have some great sayings. They�??ve been distilled from years of hard work and minding their manners. One saying that has a whole bunch of learning in it is �??My momma didn�??t raise no fools.�?�

Folks who gather around savvy hunters should keep that thought in mind. That means do less talking and much more listening.

Last year a man brought his son up for a hunt. The boy would come up to the house, make a dumb remark about deer hunting while several of us planned our evening hunts. We were tossing around ideas, and discussing where everyone would sit, and discussing the present wind condition.

The boy kept nattering on and on. He was taking up precious planning time by constantly interrupting.

One of my helpers eventually spoke up rather bluntly and loudly, and said: �??Boy, you better learn more about deer hunting before speaking your mind. You want to learn about hunting, sit down, shut up and listen. You�??ll learn more than you will talking nonsense about a topic you know nothing about.�?�

The boy sat and listened for a minute, spoke up, and my helper looked hard at him, and the kid went running out the door. His daddy had money, and it�??s almost certain that no one had every talked that way to him before.

I�??ve been around whitetails all my life, and spent over 60 years hunting and studying the critters, but there are many others who know many things that I don�??t know. I listen intently to them and learn.

There are countless ways to learn things but in-the-field experience is the best teacher when it comes to learning about whitetails. Hunting the animals, and studying them as you hunt and during the off-season, is the best way to accumulate knowledge. Reading about it, and absorbing that knowledge and putting it to good use, is another. What is most important is the hunter must learn to convert that knowledge into an action plan that works in the woods.

Experience will put a fine point on your acquired knowledge. Some of my early deer-hunting knowledge came from talking to old-time hunters and guides, and using some of that information on my hunts.

The more days spent afield will continue to add to a solid footing, and one day after learning a great deal about deer hunting, you�??ll know you�??ve come a long ways in your gathering of deer-hunting knowledge.

That will be the day when you can honestly look yourself in the morning mirror, and confess: �??I don�??t know as much about deer hunting as I thought I did.�?� And then you go out and learn some more.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Reasons Why I hunt With A Bow

There are dozens of reasons why I prefer bow hunting for whitetail deer rather than using a firearm. One day I may make this blog simple by doing nothing but listing most of my key reasons for hunting.

I’ll just trot out a few tonight, and go into a deeper explanation about why they are some of my key thoughts. Here are several to consider while you think about why you prefer hunting deer with a bow.

*October is such a beautiful month, and most of the women I know who hunt with a bow favor the beauty of early October. It’s just a shame the color doesn’t last longer.

*There is a shoot-don’t shoot atmosphere about bow hunting. A person could hunt every day with a bow without turning loose an arrow at a deer, but why? A kill isn’t always necessary but it must be what our hunting urge wants us to do. Instead of shooting and killing an animal, it’s possible to draw on every deer and then allow it to pass without taking a shot.

*There are sights, sounds and smells that nurture our days afield with bow in hand. There is the distinct and sharp odor of skunk on a foggy fall evening, and there is the odor of pungent marsh mud when hunting through cattails for wary deer.

*There are countless sounds to be heard. The guttural grunt of a buck tending a doe, the soft rustle of deer hooves moving through dried leaves, geese passing overhead with that mournful honk, and the startling noise made when a ruffed grouse blasts out of heavy cover.

*Bow hunting always makes me practice more than I normally do while working at the Buck Pole Archery Shop in Marion. I have hay bales in my yard behind the house, and I’ll often shoot a dozen arrows before heading for the woods. I make the Oneida Eagle bows that I shoot, and there is something very satisfying about shooting a bow that I designed.

*Watching and studying deer is a great personal love of mine. I’ve found that the more one studies deer, the more they learn about the animals, and the better they become at hunting deer. Watching deer closely also teaches people when and when not to draw on an animal.

*My senses reach a higher level during deer season. It seems that I can see and hear better at this point in time. I’ve learned how to look deeply into heavy cover, and to spot the vague outline or movement of a nice buck.

*Hunting makes me feel good. I don’t need a kill to be satisfied. Just watching deer, studying their travel patterns, and learning how they react to other movements or sounds. I don’t move or make any sound, and the only movement comes when I draw the bow and I know when and when not to do so.

*Bow hunting is something very special to me. There are many other reasons, some more important than others, but most of my hunting time is spent observing. Very little time is actually spent shooting deer.

*I greet October with a passion difficult to match during any other time of year. October, when it comes, is such a wonderful time for anyone to be afield.

*The deer move well early in the season, and late in October is when the rut kicks off, and it too is an exciting time. The leaves are down on the ground, and the bucks are actively chasing does all over the farm.

For me, just being there, watching the ebb and flow of deer past my chosen stand is something I treasure. It’s like a dream come true for me, and that dream always centers around hunting with a bow.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Three Years Of Blogging About Deer

My Whitetail Wizard weblog has been up for over three years now, and day after day I give readers an inside look at bow hunting for whitetail deer. The number of visitors were slow, as is always true at the beginning, but now plenty of people are coming to visit every day.

Time doesn’t allow me to respond with in-depth emails. For new visitors who are wondering about me, I was named The Whitetail Wizard by Outdoor Life magazine in 1980 when outdoor writer Dave Richey < http://www.daverichey.com > did a story about me. That first story, and others that followed in Sports Afield, The Detroit News and countless other outdoor magazines, have been circulating through bow hunting circles for many years.

My weblog is geared to the active bow hunter. Granted, I write a good bit about some of my hunts, but I also own C.P. Oneida Eagle bows, the Buck Pole Archery Shop and the Buck Pole Deer Ranch near Marion, Michigan.

My blogs are strictly about bow hunting, scouting, selecting key locations for ground and tree stands, and how to become a better bow hunter. It’s my desire to help hunters become more accurate shots; teach them how to hold, draw, aim and accurately shoot a bow; and judging from the number of readers who visit my site daily, my message is getting through to a large group of bow hunters.

This Whitetail Wizard weblog is not just another avenue for me to sell my bows, sights, releases, arrows and other archery equipment. Our primary website serves that purpose.

This daily blog is a journal of sorts. It describes good hunts and bad, learning how and when to draw on deer, when to take the shot, how to determine high-percentage versus low-percentage shots, and every one of my daily weblogs are illustrated with color photos of deer, me, other hunters, some of my 40+ deer stands, and I’m big into sharing my hunting methods with others.

There are no egos to be stroked here. Much of my daily topic material is stuff that hunters seldom read in the hunting magazines. There is much discussion on what causes deer to focus in on hunters, and the two major factors that spook deer are movement and noise.

I’ve done blogs on some of the ways to cure buck fever. Others have been done on my thoughts about broadheads (I shoot a two-blade broadhead and hand-sharpen each head). I am a bit opinionated at times about things that work, and am a strong proponent of hunters using a Game Tracker string tracking device.

Some of my blogs are on hunting the pre-rut, rut and post-rut. Some are written about using elevated permanent coops, tree stands, ground blinds and the use of pit blinds. Other items of interest to hunters include tips on pre-season scouting, locating those hidden trails or escape routes, and how and why to position stands certain ways.

Hunting the wind is the topic of occasional blogs, and I’ve covered things that I do, and other hunting friends of mine do, when the wind blows constantly from the east. I teach hunters how to study deer, how to mentally prepare for a shot, how to remain ever-alert to the possibility of a shot.

I did a blog on how to use the red-dot site that I began using and have been selling over 20 years, and have written tutorials on how to draw, aim and shoot, all in a second or less. More opportunities are missed by hunters because they are not ready than for almost any other reason.

There have been blogs on carrying a small backpack and what it should contain. How to shoot at bucks that are uphill and downhill (it’s easier than you think), and how to maintain your focus on that one sweet spot where the arrow must hit to provide a killing shot every time.

I’ve discussed deer nutrition, food plots, the need for removal of excess does, how to manage a herd for big bucks, and what is required to grow a trophy rack.

Some blogs describe my concept of targeting one particular buck, and how to make it work. I’ll discuss missed shots, remembered hunts, how to practically guarantee a whitetail buck on Oct. 1, and much more.

My blogs are new and different, and they run every day. Some of the buck photos are of truly huge racks that roam on my ranch, and there is something here for everyone. I’m a firm believer in getting children and women involved in bow hunting, and sharing the fun of a hunt together.

If this is your first time on this weblog, and if you like what you see and read, don’t hesitate to tell your friends, neighbors and relatives about it. This daily weblog is for you, a bow hunter who wants to learn about how to become a better and more successful sportsman. Stay tuned because we’re really just getting started. �??�?? The Whitetail Wizard

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Food Plots

Food plots often are little one-acre plantings near where deer bed, and I
have a few such plantings on my land. But, when one supports 400-500 deer,
such tiny plots don’t last long.

Most of what I plant is in larger plantings. A 50- or 100-acre corn field is
big enough to cut some, and leave some, and what is cut can be fed to deer
during the winter.

Soy beans are fine for deer but they scoff beans down just about the time
they start growing. We plant some winter wheat, and deer love such
plantings during hunting season.

Planting food plots specifically for hunting purposes isn’t always possible.
Sometimes, it’s necessary to cut down the size of the planting because of
the terrain.

A good example of what I try to do is to have open winter wheat fields with
one or two strategically placed coops (either elevated or on the ground),
and they work. The greater the distances to be watched often requires the
use of an elevated coop.

Coops placed near travel routes are great. One favorite spot is a natural
funnel between two heavy tag alder thickets. Winter wheat is planted on one
side of the funnel, and open rolling hills is on the opposite side of this
long and narrow funnel. An elevated ground coop (Execution Knob) is
surrounded on two sides by open fields and on two sides by the meandering
funnel. A coop is placed on the opposite side near the edge of the field.
Both spots produce simply because the tag alders offer cover and a
reasonably secure travel route, and there is nearby food and water
available.

Another coop is placed at the edge of the corn and near another alder swale.
Deer have traveled between the corn and the alders for many years, and this
ground blind is a natural. It produces good bucks every year.

One other thing I try to do is position coops along natural travel routes.
For instances, on the south side of my property are some rolling hills
dotted with thornapple trees, and deer must pass through the thornapples and
the heavily wooded ridges to reach the grasslands and open fields below.
Pick a spot where two trails merge into one, set up a stand on the downwind
side, and be ready for action.

Deer like field corners, especially those with heavy cover and brush. Deer
dislike walking through open woods to reach a open food source. They prefer
to approach the feeding field through heavy cover, stand back and look for
danger before stepping out. Find such a spot, and position an elevated coop
or tree stand nearby, and stay out of the area until hunting season arrives.

Creek bottoms are hotspots, and edge cover near old marshes are good. Deer
can move along the edges of the marsh grass and heavier edge cover, and if
danger threatens, they are only one step from heavy cover. A well placed
stand along such travel routes leading to food sources can be exceptionally
good.

I have a ground blind near a huckleberry marsh, and deer love this cover. It
is thick but narrow, and in one spot, a road crosses through the cover. On
the south side, in an open field, is a very productive coop. The deer will
filter down through the marsh, each the dirt road, and walk that up the hill
and out in front of the coop. It is a very good stand, and although few of
my stands are pretty, they are pretty effective.

Look at the cover, and look at the natural travel routes of deer in your
area, and then look for places where these travel routes butt up against
natural cover. You’ll find that by putting some thought to the topic, it
becomes easy to locate stand sites near food sources or along trails leading
to those food sites.

One spot that we call the Skyline Set is downhill slightly from a well-used
trail leading from heavy cover to the open fields. The deer stop here to
look out toward the open fields, and they are silhouetted against the sky.
It means uphill shooting at 18 yards, and each year it pays off with nice
bucks.

A bit of thought is all it takes. Put yourself in a deer’s place, determine
what they need for food sources and how they move through to get there, and
you’ve found a hot spot.—The Whitetail Wizard

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Loving Spring, One Day At A Time

There is a certain something about spring that makes me feel like spending more time outdoors. For me, cruising the 1,024 acres of my ranch is like a ball-game, movie and outdoor show all rolled into one event.

Spring brings with it many changes. Some of the areas are starting to show the first signs of thawing out. The wind and warm weather today is slowly drying out my roads, and although we need some rain, it would be nice to firm up my ranch roads before the spring rains come.

The thing about a slow drive around the ranch is it allows me to accomplish many things, all of which are important. I can study my deer herd, look for a break in the fence, check the roads for really bad spots, look over some of my ground stands and elevated coops, and hope my pit blinds aren’t full of water.

Antlers are growing well on the bucks, and a few fuzzy-antlered bucks show some promise already. Some have definite eight points and a few appear to be larger and come with what appears may be a wide spread and heavy set of antlers.

The does and fawns are in groups, here and there, and the bucks are forming up their bachelor groups that will bind them together until late September through mid-October when conditions suddenly change. The pecking order will have been established for months, but fall is when bucks begin pushing each other around once the velvet falls off their antlers.

For now, they are buddies just like a group of teenagers in high school. There is always the meek and mild buck, the big bully, the even-tempered big buck, and all forms of other bucks including the occasional spike.

They travel everywhere together, and everything stays friendly right now, but the smaller bucks always defer to the biggest buck and/or the bully. They go to feed together, bed in much the same area, but the boss buck of this group always chooses the best place to bed down.

The does are waiting patiently for their fawns to be born, and they stick pretty close to areas where they will have their fawns. All does are heavy with sagging bellies, and the time will arrive in a month to two months when the fawn drop will occur.

I drive slowly around, always looking for deer and especially for the larger ones, but I’m paying close attention to the condition of my ground blinds and tree stands, pit blinds and elevated coops. The need for constant attention is always present, and this obviously includes the flow of water through my ranch.

The stream is dammed up upstream from my ranch, and if high water comes during a rain storm and the beaver dam washes out, all that water and silt will come washing downstream onto my property.

High water, even from this tiny creek, will wash out parts of my roads, make other roads nearly impassible, and create great problems. Although deer will travel through water if they must, they also will avoid such floods and very wet locations if it is possible.

Two stands are near an old beaver pond on my property. The pond originally covered 10 acres or so, and now it is grown up to tall marsh grass. Deer use the marsh grass on occasion, but they prefer other cover. My primary concern is to protect my roads during a rain and fences during strong wind storms.

Spring is good for what ails a person. It is a time of renewal, a rebirth of our land and the animals that live here, and I take a genuine pleasure in driving the roads and studying the changes that winter has left and those that spring will bring.

And, whether we like the changes or not, Mother Nature doles them out and we have little choice but to accept them.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Spring Gobblers Music

Spring has a special form of music, and unlike a boom-box that can be heard at high decibel levels, some of the finest spring sounds are made by wild turkeys.

There is a whole vocabulary of turkey sounds, and each has its own message from one turkey to another, from a gobbler to a hen or from a hen to a white-headed gobbler.

Turkeys seemed to be slow to move into our particular area, and even today, there are not a large number of birds on my 1,000 acres. There are two or three small scattered flocks, and for the past three weeks, the woods have been alive with their calls.

Personally, I find the gobble to be the most stirring of all. This is especially true when a great big gobbler pussyfoots in behind you, and roars out a gobble or douible-gobble at the maximum noise level. It�??s difficult to sit through it without jumping, and the hunter must be prepared for a close-up gobble at any time.

It�??s quite easy to tell the difference between a jake and an older gobbler. The jake sounds like an adolescent boy when his voice is changing. Sometimes the gobble starts on a high, squeaky note and gets deeper as it goes, or start out sounding almost like an adult bird before getting squeaky and breaking at the end.

There is no doubting the gobble of a large adult bird that is three or four years old. These bruisers have a built-in amplification system, and a hard gobble seems to shake the trees and the ground. It is a raw and primitive sound, startling in its clarity, and overpowering in volume.

What is really striking is to have several gobblers roosted in adjacent trees. The first bird to sound off is usually the Boss Man, the biggest gobbler in the area. There is a pecking order in nature, and all other gobblers defer to the largest bird even though other gobblers will try to run off with a hen if the opportunity arises.

A hen yelping is an engaging sound that immediately attracts your attention. She can yelp softly, at medium volume and loudly, as she determines. Hens also putt, cluck, cutt, purr and whine. Some claim there are even more sounds in the turkey�??s vocabulary.

There is a drumming-spitting sound that gobblers make when they are near a hen. This sound doesn�??t carry very far, but if you hear it, the bird is very close and any movement would spook the bird.

I called once to a gobbler while sitting on the ground. A hen came out, and stood within 20 yards of me in the open. The gobbler�??s snowball-white head could be seen circling my position, and both gobbler and hen were looking for the hen that had made the call.

The birds were too close for me to call again, and I figured the gobbler would finish his circle, and head out into the field to strut and display for the hen. I was sitting motionless when I heard this sound for the first time.

It sounded like the gobbler was humming and spitting. It sounded something like a �??hmmmmmm-phhit!�?� The bird stayed directly behind me for 15 minutes, drumming and spitting, and the hen was getting agitated and the intensity of this sound seemed to increase.

It didn�??t seem to get any louder, but the intensity of it grew more demanding. I�??m not sure that is the right word, but finally the hen turned, and walked within five yards of me, met up with the gobbler, and he quickly had his way with her. There was a violent rustling in the leaves, and soon she had been bred.

The two birds wandered off the opposite way, and I didn�??t shoot a gobbler that day, but was witness to a turkey sound I�??d never heard before. I�??ve heard it many times since, and it always seems to be made by a large gobbler with breeding on his mind.

I can�??t begin to recall how many times I�??ve listened to gobblers and hens, and there are times when the hens get pretty sassy with a gobbler. Often, it the breeding is winding down, a gobbler will stay close to a solitary hen.

If a gobbler starts coming to a call, the hen may cutt, yelp and carry on, and I�??ve found that making the same sounds as the hen will occasionally bring both birds to the gun. Hold off, wait until the birds separate, and give a soft cluck. The gobbler will raise his head and one shot is all it takes to kill a long-spurred, heavy brushed longbeard.

And most of the skill needed to work a gobbler is to duplicate the calls of a hen. It works for me. �??�?? The Whitetail Wizard

Monday, March 24, 2008

Late Winter Is A Bad Time For Deer

The last two weeks of March can be an empty time for a deer herd if the weather turns bad. The five-day forecast for this week and part of next is for milder weather and some snow.

It’s not always this way, and it could certainly change in a matter of days, if past two weeks means anything. By now, most deer are stretched pretty lean and it doesn’t take much to tip them over the edge if they can�??t find food.

However, I�??ve been seeing a number of deer feeding along the shoulder of roads and those numbers will increase. Slow down and look ahead for deer.

However, for as freaky as our weather has been this winter, it wasn’t all that bad. The same cannot be said for some deer herds in the Upper Peninsula where heavy snows doomed many animals to an early death. We�??ve got over 100 inches of snow, and it�??s been spaced out well between thaws so that most animals can walk on the snow crust.

When grub gets low, and deer start living off fat reserves and bone marrow, the chance of survival is mighty slim. Deer need a bushel of browse daily, and when snow depths prevent any movement and deer are confined to deer yards with minimum food, the toll can shoot upward.

Fawns and older bucks often die first. Does, even though pregnant, can usually survive. Bucks, especially adult animals, often succumb when they can’t replace the weight lost during the rut. A rutting buck can lose 30 percent, or more, of their body fat and it is difficult to recover when the winds of winter blow cold and snowy.

The recent bit of rain sprinkles and slight warmer weather has cut snow depths in the Lower Peninsula. Whitetails appear are moving easily, and I saw a couple of animals in my back yard last week. They were moving around, and after they walked off, I checked the snow depth at less than six inches.

It’s when the snow gets belly deep, and a crust of ice forms on the surface, when deer die. They cut their legs striving to move through the ice-covered snow, and become easy prey for free-roaming dogs and coyotes. Wolves take a deadly toll on Upper Peninsula deer during a severe winter.

Winter�??s back may have been broken by now, but it’s not unusual for us to get a late-March or early April snowstorm Let’s hope the deer continue to thrive, and that our 2007 deer herds will make it through in fine shape.—The Whitetail Wizard

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Natural Sounds Can Help Bow Hunters

The big buck moved two or three feet at a time, stopped, studied the cover on both sides and in front of him, sniffed the air, and then moved forward again.

He was going nowhere fast. It was obvious this buck had been spooked by another hunter sometime in the past, and he was cautious. There were no other deer nearby—just him—and he was taking his time.

Another few steps, and a slight turn, and he would be within range. I looked at my watch, and knew this buck was mine. Every day at about the same time the school bus would come clattering down the highway, stop in front of a nearby house, and the buck would raise his head and look toward the road and listen to the noisy kids getting off the bus.

He had just finished taking those steps when the bus came to a gear-grinding stop. The big 8-point raised his head, looked out toward the road, and the sounds of the kids getting off the bus caused him to raise his ears. It was a natural sound he had heard many times before.

What he didn’t hear was my bow coming back to full draw as he stood quartering away. The arrow sliced in and that buck ran 60 yards before falling, his ears still hearing the children chattering out at the road.

Deer are accustomed to hearing all types of natural ounds. Some are heard so often they become second nature to a deer. A deer hears the sound, recognizes them for what they are, and doesn’t become alarmed.

These natural sounds can work to a bow hunter’s advantage. I’ve deliberately placed elevated coops where the slightest wind will cause the tips of branches to rub against the roof of the wooden stand. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out when to draw on a deer standing out in front of that blind. That deer is accustomed to hearing that sound, and hunters should wait until the branches start rubbing against the stand, and then draw, aim and shoot.

Years ago I had a stand placed on the ground near two trees growing out of a single trunk. Any breeze at all, no matter how softly, would cause those two trees to creak. I used the “creaking tree” trick to shoot a number of fine bucks over the years.

I had a stand once that seemed to be directly under the flight path of the Detroit-Traverse City late-afternoon or early evening flight. Perhaps this buck couldn’t understand what the noise was, but every day he would stop, lift his head up, point his nose toward that passing jet, and it always provided me with an easy shot.

I passed on shots at that buck for two years, waiting for him to grow a decent rack, and when he did and came by and was in front of me when the jet flew over, it was an easy shot.

Squirrels running through dry autumn leaves always seem to attract the attention of deer. They may see that squirrel running through the woods a dozen times each day, but whenever they scampered from one tree to another, deer often turn to look at them. This often provides enough noise to cover the drawing of your bow, and the scampering squirrel is actually working on your behalf.

Birds flit overhead, land in nearby trees, and are common sights for deer but they always turn to look at flying birds. The movement catches their attention.

Crows fly overhead, cawing like crazy, making enough racket so 10 people could draw their bows. Deer seem to pay more attention to a crow when it is nearby rather than when 300 or 400 yards away.

Blue jays serve the same purpose as crows except they don’t range as far. Jays often flit from bush to tree limb, to the ground, and up to a tree again. Each time the bird moves it attracts the attention of a deer, and when the deer turns to look at the jay, that is when to make your draw providing the animal is positioned properly.

Hunters must learn to take every possible advantage offered by natural every-day sounds. Wait for the deer to get perfectly positioned, and wait for a noise of movement nearby to attract their attention.

Use that time to come to full draw. Don’t hurry it because hunters usually have more time to aim and shoot than they think. Acquire the proper sight picture, hold steady, and make a smooth release.

Hunters who learn this trick seldom go without venison during the winter months. �??�?? The Whitetail Wizard